CSB student attends national conference

The 72nd Annual Student Council on United States Affairs (SCUSA) was held virtually and in person at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. from Nov. 3 to 6. This year’s topic was “Disruptive Technology and American Influence in the Coming Decade.” CSB/SJU were represented by Student Representative Julia Krystofiak, CSB junior, who participated in the conference virtually.

“[A major] highlight was listening to General Paul Nakasone’s speech. He was the keynote speaker and he’s an SJU alum, so that was that was really, really cool to watch him speak. Especially because this is where he started,” Krystofiak said.

SCUSA provides opportunities for students to learn from experts in various fields and build connections with students from other colleges, including West Point cadets.

“These are the future leaders of the military and they develop connections that oftentimes they keep into future years,” said Chrisi Siver, political science professor. “Students who attend something like SCUSA are the students who will be in graduate school with you if you continue on the foreign policy vein.”

According to Siver, students have been participating in SCUSA at least since she arrived at CSB/SJU in 2010. With the exception of last year, when the event was canceled due to COVID, CSB/SJU have sent representatives every year.

Hundreds of students from around the world attend the conference to discuss U.S. foreign policy.

In most years, CSB and SJU each send one delegate in person after the McCarthy Center conducts an application process.

This year, the school received only one spot for a virtual participant. Due to time constraints, Siver and professor Matt Lindstrom, opted to accept nominations from professors instead.

Along with professors Colin Hannigan and Pedro dos Santos, they agreed that Julia Krystofiak should represent CSB/SJU at West Point.

“Of course, that’s something I’m really interested in, especially because the topic was “Disruptive Technologies,” and I do a lot of work with data analytics, so that was particularly interesting to me, so I was really excited,” Krystofiak said.

Krystofiak first became interested in foreign policy during an international relations course at CSB/SJU.

Her ongoing research, which she intends to continue to develop into a senior thesis, examines tweets by Donald Trump and other world leaders for how they reflect masculinity and populism.

Each student participates in a round table discussion, and Krystofiak participated in one discussing Russian information warfare.

“We went for a full day, about 12 hours,” Krystofiak said. “We talked about various issues that we were familiar with surrounding cyber-attacks and information warfare, and then day two and three we really focused on creating a policy memo designed to appeal to lawmakers, specifically in foreign policy, and we focused on Russian strategic analysis. We had policy recommendations and implementation strategies.”

Krystofiak said the experience broadened her understanding of public-private partnerships in cybersecurity and gave her new options to consider as she gets closer to launching her own career.

“I think this is just a really great example of the kind of opportunities that a student can have at a small liberal arts school that don’t necessarily exist at larger schools,” Siver said. “This is something we really do focus on. It’s not limited to political science majors. We really do encourage people from all interest areas to apply. We also encourage people, when they come back from the conference, to put together education opportunities for other students.”